Why I Love Transferring Amex Points to Hilton Honors

I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but hear me out: While many travelers criticize transferring American Express Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors, I’m a frequent offender.

Let me explain why I do this before you judge.

Overview of Amex Transfer Partners

The Amex Membership Rewards program has a whole bundle of very valuable transfer partners, including All Nippon Airways, Air Canada, Avianca, Virgin Atlantic, and Flying Blue. Each of these programs does very well when it comes to luxury international flights, so that tends to be where most people transfer their points — and understandably so.

We value Amex points at 2.2 cents each, while most airline miles are valued between 1.3 and 1.5 cents each. While it’s a lower value when transferred to an airline mile, you can still extract great value from these programs.

Compare that to our valuations of Hilton Honors points at just 0.5 cents each. And even though you’re transferring over your Amex points at a 1:2 ratio, you’re still coming out severely undervalued.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Hilton charges so many points for its hotels. While it doesn’t publish an official award chart, a standard room reward costs you anywhere between 5,000 and 150,000 points per night.

In this example, from the Carte Hotel San Diego Downtown, Curio Collection by Hilton, you would need to redeem 70,000 for a stay worth just $283 (before tax). That’s netting you a value of just 0.4 cents, well below what even we value your rewards.

Plus, although the 150,000-point cap used to be limited to just 2 of Hilton’s properties, more are slowly creeping upward. That’s not making a great case for using your Amex points for Hilton, is it?

But hear me out.

Transferring Amex Points to Hilton Honors

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that transferring your Amex points to Hilton isn’t always the best idea. The San Diego hotel example above highlights this, yielding just 0.8 cents per point. However, there are certain scenarios where making the transfer can be worthwhile.

1. When There’s a Transfer Bonus

Amex often has transfer bonuses to Hilton, providing a limited opportunity to get more bang for your buck. These range as high as 50%, so for every 1 Amex point you transfer, you can receive 3 Hilton points.

That transfer bonus puts you at an average value of 1.5 cents per Amex point, which is on par with its airline transfers. Is that the best bonus ever? No, but it’s spades above its other hotel partners (Marriott and Choice), and can mean the difference between affording a Hilton stay or not … which brings me to my next point.

2. When You Can’t Buy Any More Points

I travel a lot more than the average person, which means I’m always looking to stretch my cash and points. Usually, this means I’m using a combination of points I’ve earned, points I’ve purchased, and cash to pay for my travel.

Each year, this also means that I max out the number of Hilton points I buy. A few times per year, they go on sale with a 100% bonus, dropping their cost to just 0.5 cents each.

However, Hilton caps the number of points you can buy to either 160,000 or 320,000 points every year. Since I tend to redeem my points at hotels that cost 120,000 or more points per night, that doesn’t get me to the crucial 5-night stay I want at Hilton hotels (this is because Hilton gives its elite members their fifth night free on award stays).

Instead, I buy as many points as possible and utilize Amex transfers to make up the balance. It’s a win-win: I get to stay where I’d like, and I’m not using all of my Amex points at Hilton.

3. When You’re Redeeming Your Points for Max Value

I nearly always redeem my Hilton points at bucket-list properties, such as the Conrad Bora Bora or the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. This has the benefit of giving me a great tan while also maximizing the value of the points that I redeem.

For example, the Conrad Bora Bora is a property I return to each year (and has now become our family vacation spot). Its room rates hover just over $1,000 per night before tax:

At the same time, you can stay 5 nights here for just 480,000 points. That nets you a value of 1.27 cents per Hilton point that you’re redeeming.

Not only is that nearly triple our value of Hilton points, it actually means that transferring your Amex points and redeeming them in this way gets them a value of 2.54 cents each — and that’s without a transfer bonus.

Final Thoughts

Transferring your Amex points over to Hilton isn’t always the best idea — and for many, losing out on booking business or first class flights isn’t worth the tradeoff. However, I enjoy making the most of this partnership. By leveraging transfer bonuses and exclusively redeeming points at high-end hotels, I ensure I maximize the value of my Amex points and ensure my transfers to Hilton are worth it.